I wanted to change the rules of engagement, asking for more- from fewer. I was insisting that we had to have only the best people...If you wanted excellence, at a minimum, the ambience had to reflect excellence.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of high standards and excellence in a team's composition and work environment.
Jack Welch's quote highlights the necessity of transforming the standard practices within an organization to achieve excellence. He advocates for surrounding oneself with top talent and ensuring that the surrounding environment fosters a culture of high performance, suggesting that to attain exceptional results, both the people and the conditions must be of the highest quality.
In practice
In a corporate training session on leadership styles.
You've got to eat while you dream. You've got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.
A leader's role is not to control people or stay on top of things, but rather to guide, energize and excite.
Control your own destiny or someone else will.
The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well. I don't like to use the word efficiency. It's creativity. It's a belief that every person counts.
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance.
People will not follow a leader with moral incongruities for long. Every time you compromise character you compromise leadership. The foundation of firm leadership is character.
America's promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That's one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.
When you're female working in a male-dominated industry, there are unfortunately extra things you need to do - for example, couch opinions in a way that sounds palatable and not threatening. That's a skill I developed.
No man can become a great leader of men unless he has the milk of human kindness in his own heart, and leads by suggestion and kindness, rather than by force.
I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.
Okay, you've convinced me. Now go out there and bring pressure on me.
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